The votes were tallied Monday night, a day before the real election.
Adrian Dix would most certainly have approved.
The results of the Student Vote BC mock election were available to the NDP leader Tuesday morning, and they gave Dix the nod to become premier, his party having won over the province's 18-and-under crowd by a resounding margin.
Ballots filled in by students at 787 B.C. elementary and secondary schools gave 53 seats to the NDP, 20 to the Liberals, eight to the Green Party of B.C., and four to independents.
The NDP captured 38.6 per cent of the popular vote, followed by the Liberals at 28.1 per cent, the Green Party of B.C. (17.3 per cent), the Conservatives (8.5 per cent) and other parties (7.6 per cent).
Locally, there was bad news for incumbent Liberal MLA Shirley Bond in her riding of Prince George-Valemount. Students in the four participating schools elected NDP candidate Sherry Ogasawara, rather than bring Bond back for a fourth term.
Ogasawara won by a three-vote margin over Bond, garnering 61 votes for a 45.86 per cent majority, while Bond had 58 votes for a 43.61 per cent share. Nathan Giede of the Conservatives was third (nine votes, 6.77 per cent), followed by Donald Roberts of the Christian Heritage Party of B.C. (five votes, 3.76 per cent).
A total of 133 students in the four schools voted in Prince George-Valemount, including Vanway, Southridge and Pineview elementary schools and Prince George secondary school.
In Prince George-Mackenzie, Bobby Deepak of the NDP gathered 277 votes for a 38.42 per cent share to emerge as winner. In second place, Liberal Mike Morris picked up 202 votes (28.02 per cent), followed by Green Party candidate Karen McDowell (183 votes, 25.38 per cent) and Terry Rysz of the Conservatives (59 votes, 8.18 per cent).
The Prince George-Mackenzie vote involved 721 students.
Participating schools included Pinewood, Morfee (Mackenzie), Immaculate Conception, Heather Park, Highglen Montessori, Hart Highlands, Edgewood, Peden Hill, Malaspina, Spruceland and Ron Brent elementary schools and Kelly Road secondary. Results from Kelly Road, Ron Brent and Edgewood were unreported.
Students in the Nechako Lakes riding elected Liberal John Rustad to another term. Rustad gained a total of 166 of 499 votes cast for a 33.27 per cent share, followed by Colin Hamm of the Green Party (126 votes, 25.25 per cent), Conservative Dan Brooks (107 votes, 21.44 per cent), Sussanne Skidmore-Hewlett (76 votes, 15.23 per cent) and Beverly Bird of the Advocational Party (24 votes, 4.81 per cent).
In Cariboo North, Independent Bob Simpson scored a landslide victory in the student election, with 431 of 678 votes for a 63.57 per cent margin. Liberal Coralee Oakes was a distant second (141 votes, 20.80 per cent) and Duncan Barnett of the NDP was third (106 votes, 15.63 per cent).
Around the province, 94,148 students cast ballots for the StudentVote BC election.
